(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical cable identification apparatus. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method for identifying an optical cable in a remote place, and an apparatus using the same. Herein, the remote place refers to a place (e.g., a manhole) remote from a central office where communication equipment is located.
(b) Description of the Related Art
In general, a phone line or other communication line is connected between one central office to another central office, and a plurality of manholes are provided between the central offices for convenience of maintenance, repair, and replacement of the line.
Substantially, when a plurality of optical cables are installed in a manhole, the optical cables need to be branched or relocated often. In this case, there is a possibility of cutting a cable path in a communication state when a wrong cable is selected. Therefore, it is very important to identity the correct optical cable to be cut before starting a cutting process.
Conventionally, a cable is identified by physically pulling a cable from a neighboring manhole or by using electromagnetic induction. However, there is a problem in application of the electromagnetic induction to identify an optical cable. A metal line must be included in the cable for inducing electricity, but most cables today do not have a metal line, and metal lines may be disconnected from each other through a manhole.
In addition, according to another conventional method, light beams are entered into an end of an optical fiber and the optical fiber is bent in the middle. Then light is output from the other end of the optical fiber such that the optical fiber can be identified. However, this method also has a problem in directly accessing an optical fiber surrounded by a cable.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the invention and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.